1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a method for generating and executing complex COMputerized PROcedures (COMPRO) which monitor the operation of a nuclear power facility and, more particularly, for generating equations representing conditions or states of the facility and executing the equations to determine whether the facility is operating within the design conditions and whether an emergency exists.
2. Description of the Related Art
COMPRO is a computerized information and control system primarily intended to be used to assist facility operators in monitoring and controlling the execution of plant procedures, including for example emergency operating, normal operating, abnormal operating and alarm responses. COMPRO allows facility operators to access and follow procedures in an easy and logical manner. At the same time, the COMPRO system provides the facility operators with parallel information to allow them to assess the overall status of the process or facility. COMPRO may be used for all types of plant operating procedures. Most plant operating procedures are well suited for automation since a computer can easily monitor many parameters concurrently. By presenting information in parallel, COMPRO helps plant operators to see where they are with respect to the overall plant response.
Formal written plant operating procedures under either normal or emergency conditions for a nuclear power plant are developed well in advance by experienced specialists. These procedures are not only intended to guide a facility operator along a recommended course of action but also to detect anomalous conditions and to recommend changes in the normal course of action to deal with these anomalies.
COMPRO or the interactive computer based monitoring of the execution of complex operating procedures is well established and has resulted in issued patents, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,803,039, 4,815,014 and 5,068,080. After the design of the basic system to execute complex operating procedures, the subsequent patents and patent applications have focused on enhancements to the basic system and have not addressed the fundamental software structure of the basic system.
The design of the basic software had system parameters (valves, pumps, generators) and conditions hard-coded into the software. For example, feed water valves may operate above a certain flow condition, such as 100 feet/second. This condition was hard-coded into the system software, for example as "If valve-input&gt;100 then valve-condition=True". The software was compiled resulting in executable source code explicitly including the decision making steps.
However, if one parameter had to be changed, the system source code would also have to be changed and thus, would also require a recompilation of the source code for the entire system. The recompilation was costly because of the editing, testing, and verification and validation required in this type of implementation of the COMPRO system. Moreover, system designers had the arduous task of writing and maintaining potentially thousands of lines of computer code.